Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Lily Go's Metropolitan Shawl Kit Giveaway

Congratulations to Kae! She is also winkm33 on Ravelry. Please email me, sandrasingh@sandrasingh.comThank you everyone for entering!

My first Blog Giveaway for April is Lily Go's Metropolitan Shawl and a skein of Dream In Color's Smooshy to knit it in!

Metropolitan Shawl

I've often called the talented knitwear designer Lily Go "Queen of the Empire Waist Top." Through out her career she has reworked this classic tunic style adding modern feminine details such as lace, cables, buttons, belled sleeves and more. Lily believes in custom fit garments, tailored to flatter your shape and lifestyle and she writes her patterns with particular attention to waist, neckline and sleeve shaping.

Each of Lily's designs provides step by step instructions and measurement charts to ensure that each garment you create is custom fit to your exact size. Most of her tops are knit top down in the round with no seaming thus allowing you to try on as you go. For these reasons her figure flattering Simple Cabled Cardigan, Empire, Lace Sleeves, Dahlia, Sunshine and the crocheted Orchid have been big hits with my clientele.

Simple Cabled Cardigan

Empire

Lace Sleeves

Dahlia

Sunshine

Orchid

Lily has recently turned her attention to designing shawls and you'll be happy she did once you see her four new lacey creations. This giveaway is for her new Metropolitan Shawl which was inspired by Lily's view of a big city. Metropolitan begins with stitches cast on for the lace edge along the two lower sides, then stitches are decreased to produce a triangle shape and its knit with only one skeins of Dream In Color's Smooshy.

MetropolitanFinished Size: 102 cm (40”) across top edge, 51 cm (20”) long from centre top to point.

Dream In Color Smooshy, Lipstick Lava

Bella

Darling triangular Bella combines a stockinette stitch body with scalloped edges and its knit quickly in only 370 yards of your favorite fingering weight. Pigeonroof Studios' Circe or Original Sock would make this shawl as unique as it is beautiful.

Narnia

Poison Ivy

And Narnia and Poison Ivy are also triangular shawls and are worked from the top down. All of Lily's shawl patterns includes charts, written instructions, stitch count totals for every row and tips how to make a larger shawl and the yardage needed.

Can't decide which shawl project to knit first? With Lily's new eBook you won't have to, the Shawls to Knit Collection includes all four of these designs, for only $15! And visit Fingering Weight and DK Weight to find the perfect yarn for one of these projects, email or call any time I'd be happy to help you decide.

Lily is also a busy mother. She designed this darling play dress Lauriefor her oldest daughter. Its an easy knit project with some crochet finishes. To make it special, Lily added slightly ruffled sleeves and skirt hem plus two pockets so your sweet little one can carry her favorite sweets. It's a perfect dress for a play date.

Laurie includes a tutorial to make the crocheted picot bind off, to attach the pocket and to make button loops using a tapestry needle and instructions for knitting the dress in a Sport or DK weight yarn.

I've had the pleasure of working with Lily for almost six years and as you can see, though I was very new to the fiber arts industry, I immediately recognized her talent and exquisite attention to detail. Lily has grown as a designer writing patterns with even more flair and taking knitters in new directions. I'm happy she took a moment out of her busy schedule to agree to this Blog Giveaway and to answer a few questions for us.

Hello Lily, thank you for joining us, please tell us about yourself.

I live on a tropical island called Penang which is one of the states in a country called Malaysia, but it does not stop me from learning how to knit. I knew how to crochet since I was 6 and taught myself to knit about 4 years ago and after a couple of projects, I began designing my own patterns. I just love the process of designing my own patterns, from the imagining of the design to the drawing and even the math part of it. I love to wear something pretty and feminine and it is reflected in all of my designs. I have 2 small daughters that need a lot of attention besides my full time job, so I am happy enough if I can publish 3 patterns a year.

What got you interested in knitting?

It all started when my mother was pregnant with my baby brother and I was 6 years old at that time. My auntie, who took care of me during the day while my mother was working, was very good at crocheting baby items. I was fascinated with crochet and started to learn how to crochet. Several years later, I saw a neighbor knitting and was surprised to see that she was using 2 needles instead of 1. That was the first time I saw anybody knitting. I was to shy to ask the neighbor to teach me how to knit and I didn’t know anybody in the family who knew how to knit, so my desire to learn to knit could not be fulfilled.

When I was 18 and able to drive myself to the nearest LYS I learned from the owner how to cast on, knit and purl. She was a very busy lady and only showed me in a minute or two before attending to her other customers. I practiced the knitting techniques at home and found out that I didn’t like knitting after all. I found knitting was very slow, arduous, boring and once I dropped a stitch it lead to a disaster. So I stuck to crocheting.

Only about 4 years ago when I googled about something, that I stumbled across a knitting blog and it opened up a new horizon for me. Only then did I realize that it’s not only me who has a weird hobby. I found so many nice knitting blogs and was fascinated with all the fashionable knitted wearable's. So I decided to try my hand at knitting again. This time around I learned knitting, online from the internet. From the internet I found out about continental knitting and found that this is the best method which suits me and I started to fall in love with knitting.What got you interested in designing knitwear?

I do not like to follow patterns as I am not good at following patterns, so I started to design my own patterns. When a lot of people started to compliment my design and suggest that I sell the patterns, I started to think “Why not?” I can use the money to finance my hobby as I realized that knitting is a very expensive hobby. It helps that I am strong at mathematics and grading my patterns to many different sizes doesn’t bother me.

I enjoy designing the most when the knitted end result of the design comes out just as nice as I envisioned it. I always feel a rush of satisfaction when the completed knitted design is what I expected and this feeling is very addictive.

Lily thank you so much for taking the time to talk to with us, it was a pleasure getting to know you.

The Metropolitan Pattern & Dream In Color Smooshy Giveaway includes the pattern, emailed to the winner as a PDF, and 1 skein of Dream In Color Smooshy in Lipstick Lava. No purchase is necessary to enter and the winner will be announced on April 12, 2011.

Enter this Giveaway:The more ways you enter, the more chances you have to win and make sure to leave a comment telling exactly what you did to enter. Please make sure to include your contact information.

1. Leave a comment about your favorite Lily Go pattern, under this blogpost.2. Blog about this Giveaway on your blog and link it, leave a comment under this blogpost with the link back to your blogpost.3. Join my Ravelry group Sandrasingh.com and introduce yourself in the "Welcome Tell us About Yourself..." thread.4. Announce this Giveaway in your Ravelry group or in another Ravelry group that allows you to announce Blog Giveaways.5. Friend me on Facebook: Sandra Singh and say you "Like" my post about this Giveaway.6. Announce this Giveaway (with the link) on Facebook7. Follow me on Twitter: Sandrasingh8. Announce this Giveaway (with the link) on Twitter.9. Sign up for my Newsletter on my Home Page.10. Sign up to "Follow my Blog."

I love to knit shawls and I've had the Metropolitan Shawl in my queue for a while. When I looked at shawl your designs on your Ravelry page, I discovered I also have the Narnia Shawl and the Poison Ivy Shawl in my queue. I don't know which is my favorite because they're all different, but I'm interested in probably doing the Metropolitan Shawl first. I love the way it gives that 3D effect.

I love the Metropolitan Shawl!!!(I am having a shawl thing right now and I am adding this one to my 'I want to do list'. I also like the sweater designs, they are very flattering and pretty to look at.

Lily Go is new to me so really appreciate this post and giveaway! I discovered I have Laurie from the 2010 calendar series too :) For a shawl my fave would be Narnia and the garment would be Orchid.Ravelry name is meppynesbitt

I'm totally loving that Lipstick Lava shade, and my favorite pattern just happens to be the Metropolitan! Sounds like a perfect reason to choose me, he said with a twinkle in his eye. Thanks for the giveaway.

I love the lines and the details of the Simple Cabled Cardigan, and will be adding that to my TO DO VERY SOOn list! So hard to pick a favorite- all of the shawls are gorgeous! I subscribe to your blog, follow you on Twitter and Facebook, and will spread the word of this great giveaway! Thanks, Sandra.happyplace99 at gmail dot com

I love shawls.. ... but I must admit that I really like these designs for cardigans also. The Sunshine or Simple Cabled ones are very appealing. ^_^ I am already getting your newsletter and am a member of your Ravelry group... but I shall post there also - just in case.